Quite excited I arrived in Dortmund for my first tour with Leif Ove Andsnes playing all the Beethoven Piano concertos.
The orchestra had already played so many
concerts with Leif Ove around Europe with this repertoire, as well as recorded
all the concertos! The CD set with the complete cycle will be released in
October by Sony Classical.
Being the daughter of a pianist I seem to have inherited a deep love for and
connection with the classical piano repertoire. This, in combination with my
love for Beethoven (.. a bottomless treasure box..), caused my joining the
Beethoven cycle with Leif Ove and my wonderful MCO at this stage to be an
incredible experience. So much work, searching, feeling, analysing, growing,
maturing, so much performing experience had already been built. I joined a
flexible, steady, utterly sensitive and refined music group!
We rehearsed in Dortmund and travelled between Bonn and Hamburg to play the
whole series of concertos in both cities. How special to be in Bonn, the city
where Beethoven was born in 1770, a period in his life when he could still
hear.
There are concerts which are good, concerts which are excellent, and
occasionally concerts of a rare calibre which I will remember the rest of my
life, from which I remember musical details, (& Beethoven facial
expressions of other colleagues :-)) and atmospheres. In this tour there were
two of those magnificent concerts for me, the first one in Bonn and the last
one in Hamburg. Standing ovations and many returns to the stage for Leif Ove,
until he gave his encore, two of Beethoven's Bagatelles.
The other concerts had unforgettable features as well by the way, for example
the one in Bonn where in the middle of the first movement of the 3rd concerto
the stage suddenly got enveloped in a green light. Lots of anti-giggling muscle
training on my part, but Leif Ove continued without seeming to notice, in deep
concentration on his beautiful playing.
As if Beethoven gave his divine approval for the project ;-)
Alongside the Beethoven works with Leif Ove we played Stravinsky: the Concerto
in Re, Apollon Musagète, and the Dumbarton Oaks concerto, with Matthew Truscott
leading immaculately. And in between the many hours of rehearsals, there was
the culmination of our Feel the Music project.
Feel the music, what a great title for any concert!
The whole project is so touching.
50 hearing impaired children from Ireland, Italy, Czech Republic, and Germany
chose two songs from their countries and performed the songs with us, with Leif
Ove, and the beautifully singing girls' choir from the Dom in Essen. The girls'
choir actually sang the songs, the children stood in front of them and
translated the music in gestures, movement and facial expressions, MCO and Leif
Ove accompanied.
Their excitement was so contagious; they were so focussed on their performance
and enjoyed obviously all aspects of it. Interesting to notice for myself was
how strong their presence and performance added to my own feeling the music.
Feeling the music, a precious experience which anyone can explore endlessly,
and which only adds to the experience of music, whether you are a performer or
a listener.
Thank you unforgettable children!
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